Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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Standing before me was a man who must have been over 190cm tall. Or, to be more precise, it felt like he was blocking my way.
He was clad in thick metal armor, and the gaps between them revealed a ferocious display of muscle, so muscular that even the muscles of a bodybuilder trained to perfection on Earth would be considered “thinly sliced meat.”
And that was not the only impressive thing.
His face spoke for itself, and if this were the end of the century, he would undoubtedly have become a king, with a dramatic, strong expression… You wouldn’t be blamed if a small child were to suddenly see him up close and start crying… he was such an imposing man.
“Brother, wait a minute.”
A low voice that suited his face and body resonated.
These were the words I heard from the man who had blocked my way earlier. It filled me with nothing but fear. If an imposing person I didn’t even know in Japan called out to me like this, I’d want to run away as fast as I could.
Here all I could do was step forward just a little in front of Maon-san, hide her behind my back, and hold her hand. That was the only thing I could do.
….
“Najina-san, what are you doing?! This person is a customer who has come to the guild to ask for advice!”
Femi came running out from the reception desk and called out to the big man.
Femi-san is amazing! I would never have the courage to go and talk to him. Femi-san, you shouldn’t let the man standing in your way, Najina-san already has a scary face so I’m stopping him. What!? You’re going to say that?
“I didn’t mean to scare you, big brother.”
The big man called Najina muttered in disappointment.
“After all, wouldn’t it have been better if I had spoken first?”
As he said this, another man, who must have been at the same table, came to stand next to the big man. Looking at him, he was wearing metal armor, and it seemed he too was a warrior. He looked to be in his late twenties, or so they would call him.
He was a handsome man, so much so that if ten girls of marriageable age passed him on the street, seven or eight of them would instinctively turn their heads. He was not as tall as Najina, but he was still tall enough. At first glance, he appeared to be a slender, elegant man, but if you looked closely, you could clearly see that his body was well-trained.
“That won’t work! I’m the one who needs help from this guy!”
That’s what the big man said, but I have no recollection of it.
“I think that Mr. Wozma wouldn’t be intimidating with his face, so the conversation would go smoothly, but… Mr. Najina…”
The receptionist, Femi-san, was saying whatever she wanted. Najina-san was so intimidating. However, she seemed to have had an idea and gave up her seat to another man.
“I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Wozma, and as you can see, I’m a warrior and adventurer.”
Well, I stepped forward intending to protect Maon-san, but Wozma casually apologized to Maon-san, a woman, first.
It felt smart.
“I’m Najina, a warrior just as you saw. I’m in league with Wozma. I’m not trying to take you guys or eat you or do anything bad to you. So, can you just listen to me for a bit?”
Najina didn’t seem like a bad person, but he was still very forceful.
“Hmm. Although he has a scary face, Najina is a model adventurer in a sense… and Wozma is here too, so I think it’ll be okay. Well, I have work to do, so I’ll be fine.”
Femi-san, who seemed like she could be the soothing mediator for this situation, returned to the reception desk in a light-hearted manner. I guess I just have to prepare myself for this… With no other choice, I turned back to the two warriors.
“I’m Genta, and I came to the guild to discuss work.”
“Yes, Maon, I’m a street vendor. But that’s just today, from tomorrow I’ll be a guild vendor.”
She then gave a brief self-introduction.
“By the way… what do you mean by story…?”
Ah, that’s it, Najina-san said, leaning forward as if getting to the main point.
“Brother, can you lend me a little bit of face until we get to a secluded place?”
I don’t know, it just sounds like an invitation to a lynching event behind the school building.
“Well, it’s not here. Let’s go out for a bit.”
With that, Najina-san put on a huge two-handed sword and luggage on his back. And Wozma-san did the same, but his weapon was a sword tucked behind his waist, and he didn’t seem to be carrying as much luggage as Najina-san.
Meanwhile, I was filled with anxiety. If I asked to lend my face in Japan, all I could imagine was being taken to the back of a school building or behind the gym. I looked over at the reception counter and saw Femi-san smiling and waving as if to say goodbye. Is it really okay? She’s not saying goodbye, is she?
I went outside and walked for a while, and my anxiety increased a little, so I couldn’t bear it any longer and opened my mouth.
“Najina-san, I’m still curious about your story…”
“Ah, a story… well, what is it?”
Najina seemed to be in a difficult position and feeling a little hesitant to speak.
“We’re a little far from the guild. There won’t be many people around, so it should be okay, right?”
Wozma called out. “What? What do you do when there are few people around? Mugging?!”
Shaking, trembling, ah, I see, I get it. It’s “shaking” because your knees are shaking and swaying vertically, and “buruburu” because your whole body is shaking and swaying from side to side. And when you combine these two, your vision shakes up and down and left and right through your eyes, so that’s why you say “shakugakuburuburu”… I didn’t want to know that.
“Hey, big brother!”
“Y-yes!?”
I was so scared that my voice was shaking.
“Oh, can I have some of that bread too?”
….
Then scary-looking Najina, a big guy, said he desperately wanted to eat my bread.
According to his partner, Wozma, Najina was a skilled adventurer and was nicknamed “Great Sword.” Apparently, this nickname was something only the most skilled of adventurers could have. It would affect his image if people found out that such a skilled, imposing, and comic-book-esque man actually had a huge sweet tooth.
However, it seemed that he had been watching the receptionists tasting the jam buns and bean paste buns earlier and was so taken by the jam buns made with “Tochiotome” strawberries, which Sylphy had commented had a freshness and invigoration not found in “Elf Jam,” that he couldn’t help but call out to them.
“P-please. The jam that the elf Miss Sylphy approves of should be really amazing! Are you telling me to just stand there and watch with my fingers crossed in front of this mythical jam I’ve never even heard of? I can’t have as much as I want, but I do have some money. Please! Please sell it to me!”
“Genta, this gentleman may look scary, but everyone in town knows him. He’s a man of integrity who stands up for the weak. If you have any bread left, please share it with him.”
If Maon says so, then she must be right. He certainly has a scary face, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person…
“I understand. For some reason, we can’t sell it right now, but I wanted to hear the opinions of adventurers. Would it be okay if I let you two try it as a sample?”
When I said that, Najina let out a cry of “Wow!” and asked Wozma in surprise, “Are we okay with that?”
So, if we were to have them eat somewhere inconspicuous, where would be good? I’m not familiar with the town’s geography, so I asked Maon,
“If you have come this far, my house is close. There’s nothing here, but there is a well, and it’s not very noticeable.”
So we decided to do that and walked for a few minutes. When we arrived at Maon’s house, Najina was speechless at the sight of the burnt ruins.
“Sorry, there’s only a well and a barn, but there aren’t many people passing by at this time…”
“Sorry Granny, I looked so surprised. I heard that some idiot set fire to a house around here yesterday, but… I didn’t know it was your house!”
“Fighting in the middle of town and using fire is bad. There was no one in the guild who fit that description… So they were either drifters… or private soldiers. Either way, they were no good.”
Najina and Wozma were outraged.
“Well, well, forget about that. There’s a well behind the barn. Go wash your hands and get some water.”
As the two of them headed towards the well, I called out to Maon-san.
“Excuse me, Maon-san. I left something in the barn earlier. I’ll go get it.”
I ran to the barn, opened the closet door from a position where I couldn’t be seen, and when I returned to my room, I picked up the blue tarp that I had planned to use for the club’s cherry blossom viewing party. I also found the silver insulation sheet that I had put under the kotatsu mat that we had used over the winter in the corner of the closet, so I grabbed it and went back.
When I returned to the other world, Najina and the others had just returned from washing their hands. If I sat down in the middle of nowhere, my bottom would get dirty as it would be in direct contact with the ground.
So I spread out the blue tarp. It was about the size of one I’d found at a 100-yen shop. I showed them how to do it, saying, “Please take off your shoes and sit down.” Najina commented that it was his first time sitting barefoot on a tarp, and Maon nodded in agreement.
When Wozma said that if he were to eat jam bread from now on, it would be his first time, Najina laughed and said, “No way.”
“Now, let’s try the bread, but I’m getting hungry too, so let’s cut it into four equal parts. Maon-san, do you have a knife?”
“No, I’ll cut it for you,” said Wosma, drawing a dagger from his belt. He took the jam bun from my hand, the plastic wrapping of which had been opened, and cut it into quarters while still in the plastic on his palm, just like a skilled chef cutting tofu in the palm of his hand.
Najina took one of them with expectant eyes, and when I told him to eat it, he put it in his mouth before anyone else.
“Muuuu!”
As soon as I ate it, Najina’s voice appeared.
“The bread is so soft! And it smells like jam! It’s as if the bread has absorbed the aroma. And this jam! It’s melting in my mouth …”
Next, we sampled the bean bun. At that time, Najina drank the entire glass of water, saying he needed to cleanse his mouth, so I opened a new bottle of green tea and poured it for him.
“What’s the matter… this bread with a black inside… Just like my feet stay on the ground, the sweetness won’t leave my tongue… But this washes it away. The bitterness awakens my tongue, which has become dull from the sweetness, and the bread invites me again. It says, eat me, eat me… And once I take a bite, there’s no going back. Because, I’m like a man who knows what’s wrong but can’t let go.”
Najina, who had a dramatic, comic-style impact, had been hit by the sweet bread and his expression had gone all limp. Just a moment ago, he looked like the boss of a bunch of yelling guys at the end of the century…
I wanted to say: Give me back my tension.
Then I served them the croquette bread that I wanted them to try.
“This is the first bread we will be releasing to the world.”
With that preface, he put it in front of everyone.
“Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this.”
“Your first time?! Just how many different kinds of bread can you make? I’m amazed at everything today!”
“Genta, what is this?”
Wozma seemed more interested in this bread than the sweet treat.
“This is bread that is meant to fill you up.”
“Well, it feels like eating a chunk of meat. Is that something like that?”
“It feels different from meat, but it does make you feel full.”
The croquette on top of the bread was topped with mayonnaise and medium-thick sauce, and was divided into four equal parts, and each person ate a piece of bread.
“This is… I eat more than most people, so I’m grateful. It’s delicious and amazing.”
“It’s edible and, above all, delicious! And it has a nice aroma, this thick, black sauce-like smell… I’ve never smelled anything like it before.”
“Genta, you’re such a kid… After eating bread like this… it makes me want to eat more bread. I can’t be satisfied with just a piece of bread!”
All three varieties of bread seemed to be well received.
“So, I’d like to ask you all, do you think this bread would sell if we put it on sale…?”
I asked what I was most curious about and they all answered in unison.
….
“Wow, this has become a total mess!”
“Thank you, Genta. The bread was excellent.”
“No, I’m glad to hear your valuable opinion.”
“But anyway, brother, are you sure you want the money? That jam alone is worth a lot of money.”
“It’s fine, I’d love it if the guild could sell it.”
Before I knew it, it was getting dark and the two of them were heading home. I was about to see them off as they left the property and headed out onto the road. But just as I was about to say goodbye, I heard a sound:
“Genta-sama!!”
Suddenly, my name was called and it was the guild receptionist, the elf named Sylphy.
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